SKETCHING TIPS FOR KIDS

Most kids I know love to sketch. It is a way to express yourself and have fun, and as a bonus, you can use your sketching skills to make gifts for others. Who knows–one day, you may use those skills to make money, too. If you want to learn to sketch better, here are some sketching tips for kids.

Practice makes perfect.

No matter how good your sketching skills are now, you can still practice and get better. Even professionals continue to practice and learn, all the time. So make it a priority to practice regularly. Every day is best, but it doesn’t have to be for a very long time. If you can squeeze in 15 or 20 minutes every day, you will see a difference very soon. What’s that–you say you are too busy? How about sketching when the commercials come on during your favorite TV show. You can easily get 20 minutes of practice in if you do that during the commercials of just one one-hour show.

Use size to indicate distance.

A closer object appears larger, so if you have two objects on the page and want to make one look farther away, make it smaller than the other one. This works even better when you add a straight line, called a horizon line, going across the page. Erase the areas where your two objects cross those lines.

Sketch closer objects lower on the page.

If you are sketching two trees, and one is closer to you, sketch that one lower on the page. This will make it appear to be closer to you. Even better, draw it lower on the page and larger than the other tree. Now try adding a horizon line across the page, somewhere, so it crossed the trees. Erase the line where it passes the trees because the trees will be in front of the line. You just did three things to make your sketch look more three-dimensional and real. That wasn’t so hard, was it?

The next step is to apply these tips you’ve learned to your sketches. This will help them look more believable. Even if you sketch cartoons and not realistic sketching, using size and foreshortening will make your sketching even better.

So if you want to sketch better, take these sketching tips for kids and use them. Practice them, put them in your sketches, over and over, and soon your new skills will be amazing everyone, including you. Remember to keep a positive attitude and tear up the page with your awesome creations.